Artists’ Statement
We calibrate interference patterns into luminous volumes: radiating cones awash in spectral color. Precision and plotting paradoxically yield resonant and unstable perceptual experiences. Using principles of phasing, binary logic, and wave propagation, these elusive paintings organize pigment and geometry while intimating their material origins.
Raking through wet paint with custom fabricated tools that create multiple parallel lines, we layer (almost) concentric circles. Viscous paint flowing over the edges of the panel and ruptures in the image are surprising vestiges of gesture and materiality. In our exhibition Dark Rainbow, we expand on earlier techniques: applying texture upon texture and then excavating to create multiple color “channels” within an individual layer. The increased chromatic complexity creates varied shadows that simulate light moving through space.
Raking through wet paint with custom fabricated tools that create multiple parallel lines, we layer (almost) concentric circles. Viscous paint flowing over the edges of the panel and ruptures in the image are surprising vestiges of gesture and materiality. In our exhibition Dark Rainbow, we expand on earlier techniques: applying texture upon texture and then excavating to create multiple color “channels” within an individual layer. The increased chromatic complexity creates varied shadows that simulate light moving through space.
Through a rigorous and iterative artistic method rooted in perception and process, we arrive at unexpected associations to historical scientific experiments in optics and physics. Connections emerge between our studio and various fields of inquiry: for example, interference patterns can be the most accurate means to measure the minutest of increments from the curvature of telescopic lenses to the motions of gravitational waves. Devices called interferometers detect otherwise undetectable units. We share this desire to render the imperceptible. Our unorthodox painting duo resists cultural pressure to individualize, compartmentalize or essentialize identity and creativity.
Anoka Faruqee & David Driscoll, November 2024